The Painted Lady
by Cat Doom
Summary: Even spirits are powerless sometimes.
1. Origin

A.N.-This takes place at least a millennium before the current Avatar timeline. So the Avatar mentioned is **not** Roku, as my beta assumed, and the dragon is the volcano spirit, **not** Roku's spirit guide.

* * *

The Painted Lady-Origin

The Painted Lady was not always a spirit.

Her story began long before the Fire Nation tried to gobble up the rest of the world, before they were even unified as a nation. It began when the children of Fire had just begun to settle down on the outmost of the islands in their archipelago.

She came with her tribe to this island, and they settled here before they realized the volcano was not dormant. Its spirit was not pleased with the intruders, and it spewed fire at them, too much for their too few benders to handle. They could barely build shelter to survive in before the volcano spirit burned it down again. Eventually, their elders came to a decision. They needed a sacrifice.

It was not a cruel and barbaric custom, as it may seem in this age, but the hope that one person could fearlessly face the spirit's rage and explain their need to survive. They should have waited for the Avatar, for that is part of his duty to mediate with spirits, but their lives were burning up fast, so she volunteered to die.

She was neither the most persuasive, nor the bravest, but she had the least to lose. A young widow, her husband and her beauty had been destroyed when the downpour of fire caught them unaware on their wedding night as they slept on the outskirts of the village in their new hut. She had burns on her face and arms, and a peculiar one in the shape of a crescent moon on her forehead, caused by the melting of the gold charm on her bridal headdress from the heat.

So she covered her burns in curls of red paint (_for fire, for heat, for pain, for lost love_) and put on her wedding robes and a covered hat to protect her from the ever present hot ash in the air as she climbed up the volcano. She reached its summit and began to sing to the spirit.

She sang of the fight with another tribe on their old island which caused them to flee and settle here in hopes of a new beginning. She sang of the troubles they had gone through, even without the spirit's fiery disproval of their presence, of how there was little fresh water here and how they could barely survive, but that they did not have enough supplies to gone on another voyage to find a new home. She sang of the people they had lost to the fire, how even their best benders had been swallowed in flames as they tried to stop the onset of the magma he sent at them. She paused and softly began to sing again, of her wedding night and how it was during one of the worst eruptions they had seen and how her husband had perished in the destruction of half the village, but saved her life. She sang even louder of the burns she wore and the pain she felt. Then she closed her eyes and fell.

She woke up in the spirit world to the arguing of a fiery dragon, too bright and hot to look at, and a glowing man. The man, the dragon called him Avatar, said she was human, and must move on, that she was not a spirit and could not stay there. The dragon said she could become a spirit, then; that she had cooled his anger and he knew it was time for him to sleep; that he wanted her to watch over his island, and he would give her some of his spirit energy in return for this. They both turned to her. One nod gave her consent, and suddenly they returned to the island.

She and the dragon watched in spirit form as the Avatar tapped into many large springs close to the top of the volcano, deep below the earth. He forced the water to the top and let it flow down to cool the magma. More and more water poured down and it soon became a river. Before leaving, he turned to them and said it would become a great river over time, flowing across the entire island.

The dragon turned to her. He said he was very old, but his time there had passed. He told her that he had guarded over the island and made it grow for many ages, and he did not think the children of Fire who came to his shore, even the ones who mastered the power of his brother Sun, were worthy of guarding his island. But she came to him and poured out her soul for her people and he told her she was his worthy replacement. He faded away and she began to glow.

Time passed and her mountain stream reached the valley where her village lay and became a river. She could feel every bend and twist and knew exactly where it reached the ocean. Then she went down to see her people.

They cowered and hid from her at first, for she glowed with power, but they listened to her story and her offer of protection and called her their Lady. She watched over them as they finally built a real village and spread out across the island. Over time, there were several villages she protected, but her favorite was one that they built in the middle of her river, where the water was deepest.

Eventually, the other villages did not remember her but as a name passed down over generations, The Painted Lady. The river village knew better, for she had to protect them more over the years. The children of fire may have been creative, inventive, and know how to turn resources to their ends, but they had trouble adapting to living on water at first. She guarded them from sickness and gave them her blessing in the form of a large supply of fish from the ocean. It is the river village that best remembers her as a beneficial spirit.


	2. Redux

A.N.-This takes place during the episode "The Painted Lady" and is in the spirit's POV.

* * *

The Painted Lady-Redux

There is only so much one spirit can do, and she has slowly been losing her power in this place for a while now. The pollution in this part of the river is a barrier; she barely has the power to cross over from the spirit world and show herself now, let alone help her river village. She needs help.

She did not know it would come to this. The factory was beneficial to her little river village at first; it brought in trade and they prospered for a little while. The pollution was an unfortunate side effect, but she was stronger in other places where the mountain springs give her river life and where it fed into the ocean. So it did not matter, she still had enough power to watch over her clever children of fire who built their home with her. By the time she realized the factory was killing her village and her river, she was not powerful enough to stop it.

So she let her river carry her to the ocean, to ask its spirit for advice. It talked of the Avatar. She is not all knowing, or even half the age of the venerable Ocean, so she asks and listens to his story. The Ocean tells her of how the Avatar froze himself away in his depths for close to a hundred years, but was released recently. He tells her of how the Avatar helped him avenge the death of the Moon, on the fleet of fire, when she was slaughtered, but then miraculously resurrected. The Ocean stops his tale to convene with the Moon, for she watches the Avatar and his friends closely since she was returned to life. He tells her to wait until the Avatar comes, that he and the Moon will tell her when he approaches her island. So she waits.

And waits. And waits. Then the Moon comes to her and tells her of the defeat of the Avatar and how he barely survived, but that he is coming to the Fire Nation soon and that he may come close to her island. She hopes she has enough power left to come to him in his dreams and beseech him for help.

Through luck or fate, the Avatar and his group stop on her island, and come to her favorite village for supplies. The water surrounding the village and factory is little better than sludge now. She can watch them interact, but she does not know if she has the strength to contact the Avatar for help.

She watches their group, as they lie down to sleep. The Watergirl does not fall asleep. This is interesting. The girl waits for the others to sleep and sneaks off. This is not the Avatar's help for which she has waited but it might be exactly what she needs.

The Watergirl sneaks to the factory and settles down to wait for the workers to leave. The girl dozes lightly while waiting so she touches her dreams. The girl barely sleeps for a few minutes, and she wakes up with a vague idea for a disguise in her mind. She drapes her cloak around her and steals a hat for herself along with the food for the villagers. She bends the containers of food and herself to the village in the river and tries not to be seen, but some villagers see her as she bends away on the river and whisper excitedly to themselves. Watching from the spirit world, the Painted Lady smiles.

The next day, the Watergirl rises early to feed their giant Air Bison purple berries and tells the other children they need to wait for him to heal. She watches the children return to her little village and hears her name for the first time in many a year. She knows her little statue must appear almost familiar to the Watergirl, even if she does not quite remember why.

That night, the Watergirl sneaks off again, but before she leaves she completes her disguise with curls of red face paint. This time she steals back the medicine from the factory and uses it and her natural ability to heal most of the villagers. Her watcher from the spirit world wonders how much more she will do, before being caught or forced to leave.

The third day the group of children visit the river village, the villagers are placing her statue in the center of the town. She wonders how the Watergirl feels about this, and sees the look in her eye as her brother and the Avatar joke about the destruction of the factory. She has a bad feeling about this but is still blocked by the pollution. All she can do is wait and watch.

So again, the Watergirl dons her disguise and sneaks off, but it followed and eventually discovered by the Avatar. Instead of stopping her, they both destroy the factory. It is a large victory for her, but it will take many years for the river to clean itself without help, before she will be powerful enough to protect it once more.

She watches in the morning as the Watergirl and Avatar are found out and chastised by their friends. Then they see the army swooping down on the village. She can see a little of herself in the Watergirl ("I will never turn my back on people who need my help") and wishes she had a brother like the girl's (ages ago), even if he is terribly pragmatic, when he to offers to help.

Had she any breath, she would be holding it as she watches the children come together to scare off the soldiers. Watching their bully of a leader, she is vaguely ashamed of what once were her people have become. She is even more so when the village turns on the Watergirl when she is discovered. But her brother shames them in return and, miracle upon miracles, they come together to restore her river.

A master Waterbender, a master Earthbender, the Avatar, and most of the village working together is all it takes to clean away the years of damage and pollution from the factory. She has never felt stronger, even when she first became a spirit. She has also never been more proud of her little village.

That night, she watches again as the Watergirl goes down to her river. There is so much she wishes she could say about the risks she took, the deception of her friends, what could have gone wrong, all for her village's sake. But as she appears before her, she only needs two words to express her gratitude:

"Thank you."


End file.
